- Masoud Mohsenian, Logan Council QLD
Transportation of goods through international waters has been the cheapest means of transport in the last decades. This sector of transportation has scored more than 75 percent of the total world’s cargo transportation. About 52,000 vessels have been registered around the world and most of them are propelled with almost the same system as they did 50 years ago. In the last few decades new designs were implemented to increase the efficiency of the propelling systems of vessels, but this is not all we can do to reduce the consequences of greenhouse gases emissions.
Because of the following reasons ship builders and owners are reluctant to make major changes in the design of vessels:
• It’s cheapest to transport large volumes of cargo at the same time
• They are conservative with traditional ship building methods
• There are no immediate protesters against polluting oceans as there are for coastal pollution
The consumption of fuel for a medium size Bulk Carrier, General Cargo or Container Ship is about 12 tonnes of marine heavy oil plus 2 tonnes of diesel oil per sailing day. These types of ships may have between 230 to 300 sailing days per annum in their commercial trips. Hence for 30,000 of Bulk Carriers, General Cargoes and Containers Ships the average amount of fuel oil consumption per annum is 85 Million tonnes of Marine Heavy oil and 15 Million tonnes of Marine Diesel oil. This concerns only part of the shipping industry as we consider Passenger, Supertanker ships and other small Barge ships which is approximately 22,000 vessels; the total amount of fuel oil consumption in sea transportation industry could be doubled.
Wind power is readily accessible at sea and can be harnessed to run the ships ahead. Most ocean going vessels can employ conventional engines combined with wind power generators when wind is blowing in the same direction of the ship. This will greatly reduce the consumption of fossil fuel used in this industry.
To review the design of wind power generation for marine applications and the environment, install them in the ships power plant network as well as main propelling system by using advanced technology.
Sea transportation is a vital element in the world’s trade and economy. Running this business in a cleaner and even cheaper way would be one of the biggest challenges of our time.
BIO:
Masoud Mohsenian is currently employed as an Electrical Engineer for the Logan Water and Sewerage plant, he previously worked as an Electrical Superintendent Engineer in IRIS Shipping line, providing technical support to the ship management group in order to maintain the ships electrical system as well as electro-hydraulic cranes and winches. He was also Technical Officer (Electronics) in Thales Australia, performing Factory Release Tests for Sonar systems. He is a member of the Institute of Engineers Australia, Electrical College and has a Bachelor of Engineering Electrical, K.N.T University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.